Follow the yellow brick road to a delightful “The Wizard of Oz” at Medomak Valley High School this weekend. Turn off the cell phone, get away from the TV, and see a holiday classic done a little differently this year: live on stage.
“The Wizard of Oz,” directed by Nancy Durgin stands on its own with a lively cast of leading actors and great use of the performing space.
This production uses small, but innovative sets, beautifully painted. The house even spins.
The costumes are colorful and appropriate, especially Dorothy’s beautiful blue dress, the Cowardly Lion’s fluffy mane and the Scarecrow’s costume and the Tin Man’s barrel. Glinda, too, boasts an extravagant, fluffy and sparkled dress, and the adorable and talented munchkins have unique and creative costuming.
Spectacular costumes by Kerry Watts-Webber from ruby slippers to Glinda’s dress brighten and decorate the stage. Additional help to dress so many came from seamstresses Lara Lupien, Mindy Gould, and Deb Rancourt. The Wicked Witch costume was made by Nancy Koziol and the Tin Man costume by Peach Frederick.
The leading actors provide the energetic acting and great singing needed to make the production completely unique and definitely worth attending.
Jacob Siegel plays the flexible and loopy Scarecrow, Micah Morin plays the gentle Tin Man and Juno Buendia plays the lovable Cowardly Lion. Buendia gives the audience a lot of laughs as he shrieks and screams and goes from his girly, coward voice to his character’s attempt at a brave, roaring voice.
Ariel Haskins is the true highlight of the musical, the young Kansas farm girl, Dorothy. She has a lovely voice and brings an innocent and trusting spirit to the role. The heart of the show owes much of its life to her energy, which stays consistently pleasant throughout the show.
Glinda (Claire Lupien) has a particularly beautiful voice and the new song at the end of the show is a touching treat in her capable hands.
Zac Cushman played Uncle Henry as well as the guard for the Emerald City who does the famous “Bell Out of Order, Please Knock” scene.
The hardest role in the famous story has to be the Wicked Witch (Antyna Gould). Gould does a great job of being creepy enough without leaving nightmares in her wake. She also has the Winkies and Flying Monkeys as her minions and no one can beat that.
The often tossed away role of The Wizard of Oz himself is given great style, pizazz and just enough over the top confidence by Richard Kinney.
Live theater asks the audience to use its imagination to fill in the blanks of believability, and nowhere has it been asked for and fulfilled so successfully as it has in this Medomak Valley Players production.
The entire cast of teenagers is commended for successfully tackling this iconic movie-turned-play that could easily be as trite as a Disney cartoon gone excessively live, or unlively as is so often the case. They gave the story it’s due and brought energy and enthusiasm to a beloved story.
The restoration of “The Jitterbug” gave the musical some actual dancing under the eye of choreographer Dixie Weissman, a lively dance sadly cut from too many productions.
Vocal director Susan Jones kept the tempo up and the singing tuneful, not always easy with a young cast.
A sweet note was struck by the youngest cast member of all on Friday night. Near the ending of the show, the Tin Man, Lion and Scarecrow kneel outside of the witch’s gate and listen to Dorothy sing the reprise to “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.” The tiny Yorkshire terrier Pippin, who was onstage for much of the two and a half hour play, lay down on the Lion’s knee to watch his “Dorothy” sing.
This is the reason live theater is so special: a small probably unnoticed act not of pretending from the most trusting of all: a little dog actor, who does not know it is a play, but knows someone he loves is singing.
Together all these elements and more make this production of “The Wizard of OZ” a great family excursion and a guaranteed fun time for anyone.
The main cast is supported in style by the Chorus, Winkies, Ozians and many fantastical creatures and stars Dacey Holland, Somerset Ganz, Hailie Brown, Allison Lupien, Emily Lupien, Elizabeth Flanagan, Finley Ganz, Ella Grant, Amber Hagin, Catherine (Ellie) Shelmerdine, Jayla Robinson, Daisy Lee, Joel Morin, Wyatt Sykes, Zoe Gammon, Sirenna Butler, Myles Frederick, Elizabeth Prescott, Sophie Brooks, Alyssa Flaherty, Kylie Moody, Duncan MacLeod, Riley McCollett, Chris Shelmerdine, Owen Gilbert, Richie Sproul, Brendan Lash, Oliver Brown, and Zach Rollins.
Technical crews are the unsung heroes of all stage productions. They work as long and hard as actors and musicians but with no applause. Headed up by stage manager and actress Chelcie Luce, and under the direction of Matt Kopishke, the “Oz” tech crew includes Andrew Beaucage, Danica Juntura, Logan Butler, Will Cox, Caitlyn Breckenfield, Raven Davis, Jordan Hays, Rhiannon Gould, Eileen Monroy, Noah Dean, Josh Hagin, and Kalina Chazin-Knox, Shay Runnion-Bareford, Ian Good, Raven Davis, Lizzy Prescot and Eileen Monroy.
Once again Peter Stuart’s orchestra was brilliant and includes Pam Brodis, JoAnne Parker, Jennifer Goode, Susan Bragg, Mitch Kihn, Anna-Marlies Hunter, Dwight Tibbetts, Carolyn Kanicki, Tyler Lee, and Bill Batty.
“The Wizard of Oz” will continue with performances on Thursday Nov 12 , Friday, Nov. 13 and Saturday, Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m. at Medomak Valley High School. Tickets are $10 at the door, $8 for students.
Come early for tickets at the door: last Sunday’s performance had to turn away patrons. It is a trip down the yellow brick road offered up with love and it doesn’t get any better than that.
(Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include Zac Cushman’s name.)